Getting a lot of questions regarding my criticism of Daniel Craig's clothes. Common questions: "How can you dress if you're muscular?" "Should no one wear skinny suits?" "What about a more modern silhouette?" Let's talk about some of these points. 🧵
Craig often wears clothes that are too tight for his body. This causes the buttoning point to strain across his waist, the lapels to buckle away from the chest, and the coat's collar to lift off his neck.
His right sleeve is often two inches too short. I suspect this is because his bicep is too tight and he is right-handed. When he waves or shakes people's hands, his tight sleeve is prone to riding up on him, leaving him with too much shirt cuff. Happens often at press events.
A good sleeve should hang well, which is to say it should be relatively free from wrinkles. This comes from two things: 1) enough room for the arm inside and 2) sleeve should be pitched correctly for the arm (not too forward or back, relative to how the wearer naturally stands)
It's very much possible to get clothes made for a muscular build that's both flattering and comfortable. These garments don't pucker or pull. (Lebron's trousers bunch at the bottom bc they were tailored for dress shoes and he's wearing sneakers here, but it's otherwise good.)
These clothes will be more comfortable and allow movement. When you feel more comfortable, you will be more stylish. You will also look more at ease, so the clothes will look natural on you. You will be able to hug people without feeling like the center back seam is going to rip.
It's not that skinny suits can't be worn. It's that the cut has to work for your body. Notice Dior and Saint Laurent ads always feature a very slim model. Clothes hang right. By contrast, Craig looks like he had to squeeze into his suit. The effect is more "sausage casing."
Hedi Slimane, who helped kick off the trend for skin tight suits in the late 1990s/ early 2000s, was once the Creative Director of Saint Laurent Paris. And Yves Saint Laurent himself wore very slim suits on occasion. His body was built for it.
As for how you can modernize the suit, there are lots of ways: material, color, silhouette, or styling. Impossible to cover everything here, but the principles for good tailoring still apply to pics below: collar hugs neck, clean lines, no pulling, etc.
Will leave you with one more example. Both men are about the same height and have muscular builds. Craig emphasizes his build by slimming the suit until it looks like he bought the wrong size. The second still has a flattering build (V-shaped silhouette), but has clean lines
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In the 1950s, Irving Penn traveled across London, Paris, and NYC to take portraits of workers in their work clothes. These clothes at the time were not considered glamorous — they would not have shown up on fashion runways — but they demonstrate a simple aesthetic principle 🧵
Consider these outfits. How do you feel about them? Are they charming? Repulsive? Stylish?
If you consider them charming and stylish, as I do, then ask yourself: what makes them charming and stylish? Why are you drawn to the outfits?
As I've mentioned before, I think outfits look better when they have "shape and drape." By shape, I mean the outfit confers a distinctive silhouette. If these men took off their clothes, we can reliably guess their bodies would not be shaped like this:
If you're just dipping your toes into tailored clothing, start with a navy sport coat. This is something you can wear with a button-up shirt and pair of trousers, or something as casual as a t-shirt and some jeans. It's easily the most versatile jacket.
Key is to get something with texture so it doesn't look like an orphaned suit jacket. Spier & Mackay has great semi-affordable tailoring. Their navy hopsack Moro is made from pure wool and a half-canvas to give it shape. Classic proportions and soft natural shoulder
There's a pervasive belief that we no longer produce clothes in the United States. This is not true. In this thread, I will tell you about some great made-in-USA brands — some that run their own factories, while others are US brands contracting with US factories. 🧵
I should first note this thread focuses on well-made, stylish clothes produced in ethical conditions. For me, producing in the US is not enough. It means nothing if the clothes are ugly, crappy, or produced in sweatshop conditions. My article for The Nation below.
JEANS
Gustin produces MiUSA jeans using raw Japanese denim. "Raw" means the fabric hasn't been pre-distressed, allowing it to naturally fade with use, reflecting your actual body and lifestyle. I like their fuller 1968 Vintage Straight fit. They also do lots of other stuff.
Let's first establish good vs bad ways to think about style. The first pic is correct — style is a kind of social language and you have to figure out what type of person you are. The second pic is stupid bc it takes style as disconnected objects ("this is in" vs "this is out").
I should also note here that I'm only talking about style. I'm not here to argue with you about ergonomics, water bottle holders, or whether something accommodates your Dell laptop. I'm am talking about aesthetics.
Watch these two videos. Then answer these two questions:
— Which of the two men is better dressed?
— How does each come off?
I think Carney is better dressed, partly because his clothes fit better. Notice that his jacket collar always hugs his neck, while Pierre Poilievre's jacket collar never touches him.
The level of craftsmanship that goes into a lot of Japanese menswear simply doesn't exist in the United States. You can do this for many categories — suits, jeans, hats, etc.
In this thread, I will show you just one category: men's shoes 🧵
For this comparison, I will focus on Japanese bespoke shoemaking vs. US ready-to-wear. The level of bespoke craftsmanship shown here simply doesn't exist in the US, so a Japanese bespoke vs. US bespoke comparison would be unfair. US bespoke is mostly about orthopedic work.
So instead, I will focus on the best that the US has to offer: ready-to-wear Alden.
On a basic level, top-end Japanese shoes are better because they are handwelted, whereas Alden shoes are Goodyear welted. The first involves more handwork and can be resoled more often.